Three Christian Views of Hell (Not Just the One You Know)

Some years ago, I picked up a fascinating book called All You Want to Know About Hell: Three Christian Views of God’s Final Solution to the Problem of Sin, by Steve Gregg.

I had no idea of the historical understanding of the Church about hell, and assumed, based on scriptures about the lake of fire, that the idea of eternal conscious torment was correct.

And it might be.

(Eternal conscious torment means that those who die without Christ are thrown into the lake of fire forever and ever, where they are kept supernaturally alive in order for the Lord to keep tormenting them. This is the view held by most evangelicals.)

Gregg makes the point, though, that throughout the history of Christianity, orthodox believers have held three different understandings of what happens after death. (“Orthodox” here meaning the opposite of “heretical,” not Eastern Orthodox as a separate stream of Christianity. Traditional, mainstream believers.)

I was astonished to see him make a biblical case for all of these arguments, going through both the scriptures related to each, and the philosophical underpinnings.

And he did so with such gracious understanding of each, I came away uncertain of which position he himself held.

Besides eternal conscious torment, throughout history, some Christians have held the annihilationist view: if you don't want Jesus, nobody's going to make you have him. But God will not keep you alive in order to torment you perpetually (not terribly redemptive), instead, you are annihilated, burned up, or in some other way cease to exist.

No one forces anyone to be a believer.

The third view is universal reconciliation. At the end of the ages, the Lord Jesus receives the full reward of his suffering. “For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22). Note that this is not the same as the Unitarian Universalist perspective, which basically believes that everyone ends up with God without any punishment or correction.

One of my friends once read through the several-volume retrospective on the writings of the early church from the first millennium. He noticed what he called “hell inflation.” From very little talk of punishment after death, to ever more vivid and horrific descriptions as time passed. (Perhaps more an indicator of the minds of the people than a true accounting of what the Lord was doing?)

I tend to think that what happens to the unbeliever could best be summarized by the verse, “Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (Genesis 18:25).

Lord, as I read the scriptures, the emphasis seems to be on what you are doing for those who love you. We recognize verses about punishment, and verses about the lake of fire, but we find much more about what you expect from us, your people. 

I think about how difficult it is to deal with grief over wayward children, let alone grief over eternal conscious torment.

Lord, we trust that you, as the Judge of all the earth, will do right. Thank you, Lord. Amen.

Dear family, be firmly fixed, unshakable, always full to overflowing with the Lord’s work,

Amy Joy

P.S. Bob offered a collection of prayers for our loved ones who are not currently walking with the Lord. Prayers for the Wayward.

You are invited! Sign up for the Prayer Refresh, an email series with short prayers to pray as you go about your day. The first five readers all wrote me at different times and said, “This is changing my life.”